John O'Keeffe (painter)

John O'Keeffe sometimes O'Keefe (c. 1797 – April 1838) was an Irish portrait and figure painter.

Life
Born in Fermoy, County Cork of humble parentage, O'Keeffe began painting at an early age and was apprenticed to a coach painter. He began painting scenes for local theatres, working his way up to religious pictures for local Roman Catholic churches. In 1831 he sent a Portrait of a Lady and Crucifixion to the Royal Hibernian Academy.

He left Cork in 1834 for Dublin and continued to exhibit portrait and subject paintings. A painting from this period, A Sibyl (1835) was, as of 1913, held in the Museum of Cork. He exhibited a painting of the British army Field Marshal Edward Blakeney at the RHA in 1837. Just as his career was on the rise he died while on a visit to Limerick in April 1838. He left a widow and children.

The Crawford Gallery holds a portrait of Nano Nagle attributed to O'Keeffe.